


Publicity Front

by Edgelord (lostlikeme)



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Falling In Love, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Modern Era, Post-Canon, Reincarnation, Resolved Sexual Tension, Romantic Comedy, Second Chances, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 11:19:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14495817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostlikeme/pseuds/Edgelord
Summary: Sesshomaru opens his home to an orphaned child as part of a publicity stunt. The end result is a great deal more...private.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a fun little plot bunny I couldn't resist, inspired very loosely by the movie/musical Annie. Every chapter after the first will be 500 words. Thanks to [Aruwolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AruWolf/pseuds/AruWolf) for editing.

Lord of the West was a title borne from immense responsibility, cold blooded ruthlessness, and paperwork. Gone were the days Sesshomaru spent roaming his own lands, searching out Naraku and clearing crowds of lesser demons with a single stroke from his sword. The passage of time had swallowed more than just the Shikon Jewel. 

The Bone Eater’s Well was sealed, and where it once stood remained a shrine. Humans, by some unbelievable feat, had risen to the top of society. His kind were forced into hiding, under the deplorable disguise of humanity. Inuyasha and his compatriots were long gone, but the imprint his Priestess left behind was forever etched into the planet. 

Rin had left him long before she died, leaving a trail of children behind who’s lineage had only been snuffed out a few centuries ago. Her face, just like the rest, was gone from his memory. Souls, as Sesshomaru came to realize, were neither created nor extinguished. Each one was merely a bundle of recycled energy, bound to be rebirthed in another vessel - where, was as good as anyone’s guess.

Times had changed, turned over, and then changed again. Maintaining human appearances was no longer accomplished by the illusion of rounded ears, jet black hair, and the blunt, short claws of an ape. Technology had brought with it new ways to violate personal boundaries, and as a result physical features were no longer convincing. More and more, the facade required of him was trying his patience. 

He scanned the papers spread across the glass tabletop at lightning speed. Another article disdainfully regarding his disturbing desire for privacy and complete and utter antisocial personality. He swiveled in the chair to check his email when a lingering presence just outside the room distracted him. 

“Enter,” Sesshomaru commanded, before Kagura’s knuckles ever brushed the door. 

He didn’t glance up, but he saw Kagura enter from his peripheral vision, with a smaller ineptly dressed woman trailing silently behind. Kagura didn’t wait for him to look up. 

“Sesshomaru-sama, your guest has arrived.”

Before him stood a plain youth in a worn school uniform with long, unbrushed hair and bright brown eyes. She did not drop her gaze to the carpet when their eyes met, which was either remarkably brave, or remarkably stupid. She bowed deeply and Sesshomaru inclined his head in a nearly microscopic movement. 

“She’s the orphaned child that we talked about.”

She did not utter a single word of introduction, which suited Sesshomaru perfectly fine. Although her features were commonplace, her scent unnerved him. 

“That’s an adult,” Sesshomaru said flatly.

Kagura rolled her eyes. “This isn’t feudal Japan.”

Marriage was out of the question, but at his assistant’s suggestion he was whittled down to a major publicity stunt - something expected to decrease the polarizing public view that he was both uncaring and untouchable - practically inhuman. Temporary care for a child without a family had seemed agreeable at the time.

“I said we would bring in a child,” Sesshomaru reminded her coldly. His gaze flickered across her small form, betraying no emotion. “She’s nearly of age.”

“Nearly being the key word.”

Modern standards might label her as a minor, but these labels were as arbitrary as they were recent. Although her mind may be innocent - another fact Sesshomaru deeply contested - her body was that of a maturing woman. To task him with the responsibility of her care was inconceivable. When he’d agreed, he imagined the entire fiasco would be assigned to Jaken. 

“Your name?” 

“She doesn’t speak,” Kagura explained. 

Sesshomaru didn’t balk. “She’s mute?”

Kagura shrugged. “I figured that was right up your alley.”

He stared at the newcomer for several moments, studying the structure of her face, the thinly spaced lashes and smudged dirt on her cheek. Her small, doll-like lips formed shapes several times over before she managed to exude a single sound. 

“It’s Karin,” she clarified in a raspy whisper. “But I like Rin best.” Her voice was quiet from years of unuse. “I think...someone used to call me that a long time ago.”


	2. Chapter 2

Two entire days passed before Sesshomaru’s peace was effectively broken. He found his new asset - for lack of a better term - hunched over the ledge of the bathtub in his private quarters, in nothing but an oversized t-shirt. Her small, pert rump peeked out from beneath the hem, showcasing the snug, white undergarments she was wearing. Jaken, for all his eagerness and loyalty, was nowhere to be found. Sesshomaru steeled his instinctual reaction, and settled on the second. 

“What are you doing in here?”

Despite the near silence of his entrance, she did not startle at the sound of his voice, as if she had been expecting him. The water was already running, stiflingly loud, and the tub was halfway filled. He could see her small body moving clearly through the curtain of steam. 

“Running your bath, my Lord.”

The scalding level of heat mirrored his preferences exactly. He had never expressed as much to anyone, certainly not the help around his home. By what magic or ill timed twist of fate had the impossible occured?

“Unnecessary.” His tone remained impartial, though he could feel hellhounds licking at his heels. “You are a guest in my home.”

She turned to him at last, with round, clear eyes. Part of her hair, frizzy from the heat, was held together by an elastic band, crooked on the crown of her head. The skin under her eyes crinkled when her lips quirked, as if she were laughing at something that was a secret.

“I am?”

Her voice was artificial sweetener, dolloped into his coffee without his consent. The aura around her was a pink and white thing, void of naivete but full of innocence. The youki buried inside him roared and rushed to greet it like an old friend. 

“For the duration of your stay, you needn’t concern yourself with me.”

He followed the soft curve of her calf to where it met the outward slope of her ankle. Her toes stretched, lifting briefly before the ball of her foot touched carefully to the marble floor again. He could swallow her whole. 

“I see.” Rin draped the fluffy towel in her hands back over the silver rack and turned off the faucet before facing him. “But what if I want to?”

He felt unlike himself. Had humanity eked out what was left of his demonic soul? This Rin was not his Rin, and although his mind had long since forgotten her image - all along - his body had kept score. He forced the muscles in his fingers to unflex, lest the human illusion that concealed his true image start to slip. 

“Irrelevant,” he lied, for there was another, truer phrase poised at the tip of his tongue. 

Do as you wish.

For the first time, Sesshomaru turned and swiftly exited the room before crossing the wing of his castle and heading outside to the far reaches of his territory. Though he walked with smooth, unhurried movements, for all intents and purposes, he was running.


	3. Chapter 3

Sesshomaru drifted for many nights, until his mansion disappeared beyond the horizon line. He moved through the sky without thinking, slicing through the night like a sharpened knife and retracing the route he had known by heart since he was a child. The natural course of the world was far from instantaneous - there was only one demon who could have laid a hand in the sudden return of Rin’s soul.

His disguise fell away as Sesshomaru moved through the familiar barrier surrounding the Underworld. Having returned to his true form - silver and shining - it was as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his chest. He stormed down a corridor and toward the heart of the castle in steady, sure steps until she was found.

The woman poised on the oversized red throne touched her claws carefully to each other. Her white hair hung in four sections, two tied up in the back. The magenta marks on her face were not dissimilar to his own, two on each check, and the sign of the moon where her bangs parted. She looked remarkably full of herself. Sesshomaru's hand twitched for the hilt of his sword.

“Mother.”

“My son,” she acknowledged, with the wisp of a smirk slipping from her face. “Have you come to thank me?”

His jaw tightened as the molars in the back of his mouth grinded together. The urge to transform greeted him yet again, to let the beast wreak havoc on this place. Her interest remained superficial as she gauged him for some tangible reaction. He refused to give her the satisfaction.

“This is how you greet me after how many centuries?”

Years had piled up like dirty laundry, and Sesshomaru could rarely remember more than a handful at any given moment. Time itself both existed and did not exist, in a twisted conundrum. How could he be expected to have the patience for something immeasurably metaphysical? Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes.

“The past is over.”

“Or is it?” She stood up, fur hugging her shoulders. “I’ve always wondered…” She walked closer, and Sesshomaru stiffened at the invasion of space. “What kind of relationship exists between the human girl and my son?”

The past was rising from behind like a wreckless tidal wave, and Sesshomaru could smell the salt of the sea without ever looking back over his shoulder. He had remained above the surface by sheer luck, floating, untethered. Everything was an echo. He stared at the lines spread across his palm.

“Do not interfere with fate,” Sesshomaru commanded.

The demoness returned to her throne with a disappointed sigh. There were small, almost imperceptible wrinkles under her eyes. It was difficult to remember they were both mortal, until age twisted the skin and brain. More than ever, he understood his finite number of cells were dying, never to be revived or regenerated again. She waved him away with a lazy motion of her wrist when he looked back up.

“Perhaps you should follow your own advice.”


	4. Chapter 4

Home could be evaded but for so long. Without Sesshomaru’s signature, the kingdom would just as soon crumble. Normally, the entire fiasco could have been easily avoided if Jaken were at his disposal, but he wasn’t. His delayed return was causing far more problems than Sesshomaru had anticipated. Kagura, his so called assistant, tested his patience far more than she did her job, leaving him no choice but to do it for himself.

The clouds parted around his castle as he breezed through the sky. He paused for a moment to stare down at it, despite his instincts urging him to hurry. The hair on the back of his neck straightened on end, and Sesshomaru realized how desperate he had become for a taste of real danger. Adrenaline poured into his veins as he drew closer to the balcony attached to his room. Before his feet touched the railing, his nose picked up on the scent of blood.

He entered directly into his quarters with narrowed eyes. Had he not made himself clear? Rin was despicably close, inside his personal washroom yet again, explicitly against his wishes. He stopped at the door, trying not to sniff around the perimeter like an untrained dog. His heart thumped insistently at the reaches of his rib cage, while Tenseiga, for all intents and purposes no more than a dead stone, pulsed from its place at his hip for the first time in centuries.

“Rin,” he said, despising how familiar the shape felt against his tongue. He reached for the doorknob, but hesitated when the cool metal finally touched his palm. “You deliberately disobeyed me.” 

When the door was finally open, a gust of energy rushed to greet him, forcing him to take a step back. Rin was on her hands and knees in nothing more than a nightgown, smearing blood across the marble floor with a washcloth. The human women in his estate frequently went in and out of season, with Sesshomaru taking no more notice than to fallen leaves under his boot heel. 

Why should this be any different?

When she looked up at him, Sesshomaru’s eyes flashed like twin bolts of lightning, bright red and then gold. His youki thrashed again, breaking through the human illusion he had carefully constructed. His black hair twisted above him and fell around his shoulders in silver. A dark blue moon appeared on his forehead, and twin gashes on either side of his cheeks. His fingers flexed, nails sharpening into claws brimming with poison, ears drawn to two points. 

Rin swallowed, and the stained washcloth in her white knuckled grip stilled. Her short, blunt fingernails were caked with dried blood. He could hardly smell the fear through the thick swamp of pheromones. The beastial part of him wanted all of her, to stake claim to what was rightfully his. Her small frame trembled. In two week’s time, she would be fertile and ready to bear children. 

“Sorry,” she said softly, eyelashes wet. “I’m too old.”


	5. Chapter 5

Memories of Rin returned to Sesshomaru the longer she stayed in his home, and he found it more and more difficult to distinguish these daydreams from reality. Most clearly, he could recall those early days with her at his side, burying Jaken in flower crowns when they stopped for rest. She had never asked for more than he was willing to give, and had offered her unquestioning loyalty in return. The years after Rin’s childhood were fuzzier, and the face of her family but a blur. 

The first time around, Rin had been well established in Inuyasha’s pack long before she ever became fertile. The miko and the slayer had guided her through the transition into womanhood so seamlessly it was as if Rin had never been a child at all. As she aged, the differences between them became pronounced, swallowing up similarities whole. Slowly, Sesshomaru saw less and less of her - contact convoluted by the passage of time. 

Modern law was unlike any taboo from the feudal era, dictating a clear boundary between reproductive ability and legal status as an adult. Furthermore, the union of two separate species was what brought about hanyou. These factors made Rin a liability. Was it not the natural order of the world to live and die among your own kind? Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes when Kagura’s voice drifted into his office from down the hall.

“Honestly?” Kagura said, lowering the volume to a whisper his demonic ears picked up just as easily. “I was starting to think he was gay. I never would have pegged him for a child molester.”

Sesshomaru could hear the conversation through the wall as if there was no boundary at all. Already, the nature of the relationship between he and Rin - or lack thereof - was becoming gossip. He pushed the chair out from his desk and left his office as swiftly as he could manage in a suit. Modern attire, though it suited him well, restricted his movement far greater than kimono. 

“It’s only another week until the New Year,” Kagura said. “And the media is already eating this up.”

“Kagura.”

She held the phone away from her mouth and covered the receiver once she noticed him watching her in the dimly lit hallway. The sigh never quite escaped her lips. When Sesshomaru’s eye contact didn’t waver, Kagura disconnected the call without another word and slipped the mobile phone into her pocket.

“Yes, Sesshomaru-sama.”

The past reared up like a wall of fire when Sesshomaru tried to speak, silenced by the sharp pain of an old wound, salted and reopened. Life and death were two lines in the same circle, and soon, they would converge into history and repeat, the same as war, or the tides of the ocean. Eventually, the sediment along the shore would be polished into stones, and Sesshomaru would be the only one left to witness the transformation. His aura flared; molten, melting.

“The child,” he said flatly. “You must get rid of her.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I lied about each ch being only 500 words, whoops

The entire fiasco never went public; smoothed over and tucked away like a wrinkle in a properly fitted kimono. Rin was due to leave tomorrow evening, and the press release was scheduled for shortly after. Despite the brief duration of Rin’s stay, the story could hardly hurt his image. According to Kagura, true charity takes place on camera, with all of Japan eagerly awaiting the inside scoop on the Western Lord’s personal life.

A brief knock on the door interrupted his thoughts, but Sesshomaru merely readjusted his tie, where it had been hanging limply in his claws. He pulled one end through the loop and stared at it in the mirror. Worse still was the task of straightening the offending article of clothing with one hand. Usually, Jaken could be relied on for tasks such as this, but Jaken wasn’t here.

When Sesshomaru didn’t address the second knock, the door crept slowly open, until at last an ambitious, lopsided ponytail was poking through the crack. Only one person in his house had the audacity - the nerve. Rin’s eyes emerged from the shadows and then her round cheeks, before she squeezed her developing body into his personal quarters. She was a child only when it suited her, and a woman when he least expected it. 

“Sesshomaru-sama…?” 

The sweet lilt of her voice sucked him into the past - chained him in the bottom of the ocean. He saw her checkered clothes and the gap from her missing teeth. Rin was a reflection of who she once was, and an echo of who she was yet to be. 

He crossed the room before she could blink, pushing her into the door until it clicked shut. She spread her thighs around his leg and he bumped her with his knee, grinding the bones in her wrists together as he lifted her higher. The line where their bodies touched became a molten seam.

“Sorry!” 

Sesshomaru growled. “I’m expected to believe this too, was an accident?”

Rin took a deep, steadying breath, and Sesshomaru noticed the feeling of her chest rising and falling against the muscles coiled in his stomach. Adrenaline spiked, and his nostrils flared, sucking up the scent of something secret. Her heart thumped like the flapping wings of a caged bird, and it riled up the urge to chase mounting inside him. 

“No.”

“I see.” 

Here it was, then: the chance Sesshomaru never took. Rin, stretched out in front of him, soft and eager. Sesshomaru eased the grip around her wrists, tracking a droplet of blood as it slipped down her arm. When her feet touched the ground and he released her, she stared back at him, unwilling to run. 

“You are not afraid.”

Rin blinked, gaze flickering to the indigo crescent on his forehead, bleeding through his human disguise like it was made of water. His long silver hair fell to rest on his shoulders while he waited, eyes shining like two hunks of gold. To any witness, his demonic nature was undeniably obvious. 

“Beautiful,” she murmured, reaching her hand toward him. “Like the moon.” He half expected her to touch him, to try and card her tapered fingers through his hair. She reached for his tie instead, aligning it as she talked. “I know you want to get rid of me, and I understand why.” 

To adjust to her presence was an impossible task when she permeated the whole of his home like miasma. He found pieces of her everywhere: strands of hair coiled on countertops and inside drain pipes, fingerprints on the glass windows overlooking the garden, and the sharp, sweet scent of her lingering in his bathroom, inciting him beyond all reasonable doubt. 

Would adjusting to her absence prove just as difficult? Sesshomaru had spent centuries without Rin, only for her to slide back into his life like she had never left. Is this what a stalemate looked like? Sesshomaru took one step back, half in the past, half in the future. The present was neither here nor there.

Tie finally in place, Rin withdrew. She licked her lips and squeezed her eyes shut, as if awaiting impact. Sesshomaru hated when his mother was right.

“Do as you wish.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one more chapter left, I think... I thought about doing a smutty spinoff/sequel but I can't quite wrap my head around it. Let me know what you guys think!

Jaken appeared surreptitiously the morning Rin was scheduled to leave, as if it was any mystery how his leave of absence coincided perfectly with the duration of her stay. Sesshomaru knew the great lengths Jaken had gone to avoid his orphan handout, and he’d failed spectacularly on all counts. His surprise was both orchestrated and utterly unbelievable when he finally noticed her small form sleeping soundly in Sesshomaru’s bed.

“How did you - is that Rin?!”

Her ponytail bobbed when she crept out from under the duvet, swimming in Sesshomaru’s work shirt, a white button-down blouse that reached her knees. Even in very expensive clothes there was something about her that didn’t quite clean up. Without meaning to, Sesshomaru pictured her with a black eye. 

“Oh no!” Jaken turned to Sesshomaru standing on the other side of the balcony window and broke down in front of it. “Lord Sesshomaru, how could you?”

Sesshomaru was completely bare of his human disguise, clad in nothing more than a silk robe. It was only loosely held in place by a blue sash around his waist, revealing his pale, sculpted chest. Jaken’s illusory form was the same as his true nature, small framed and unremarkable. His dark hair covered his face as he sobbed. 

“I knew it! This whole place would fall apart without me!” 

“Jaken,” Sesshomaru said sharply. “That’s enough.” He fell silent immediately, on the verge of tears. “Do not presume to know my motivations.”

Rin’s eyes widened, and Sesshomaru heard the pulse in her throat flutter. He stepped back inside the room and stood in front of the bed. Rin remained silent, eyes tracking Jaken’s frantic movements, listening carefully to the sound of his voice.

“Please tell me you’ve read the headlines! Doesn’t that wench Kagura ever do her job?” Jaken wiped his nose on his shirtsleeve and glared at Rin. “Thanks to your indiscretion and the internet, everyone from here to Okinawa has found out about the Western Lord’s little orphan concubine!”

Sesshomaru watched realization, regret, and finally, fear, flicker across Jaken’s face. He covered his mouth with his hands and the illusion of his human facade crumbled. Whether she knew of it consciously or not, Rin relaxed at the sight of his familiar demon form. Jaken hurried to correct the misstep and explain his line of reasoning but it was little more than babble.

“We can still fix this, of course!” Jaken blurted, barreling between the two of them, gesticulating wildly. “We can spin it as a misunderstanding - not an adoption - a - a - a - marriage!” 

The clock in the main hall chimed, echoing ominously through the rest of the manor. Marriage was something Sesshomaru had avoided thus far by sheer force of will. Rin released a quiet, careful breath. 

“You mean like…” Rin tried to swallow her interest but it was no use. “A wedding?”

Jaken ignored her.

“The lifespan of a human is insignificant!” Sesshomaru’s eyes flickered to Rin, but she didn’t flinch. “We can say the press got everything mixed up when they found out you were checking the family registry.”

“Rin?”

“Who cares what she thinks! She should count herself lucky to even be considered!”

Sesshomaru turned to Rin, addressing her with his sharp, penetrating gaze. Rin nodded, fists balled at her side in a show of determination, undeterred. Jaken was stricken, eyes the size of dinner plates. He thrust both of his green hands out in a gesture of protest, but it was too late.

“So be it.”

“Wait a minute!” His voice pitched. “I don’t know what I was thinking! We shouldn’t be too hasty in these matters, isn’t that right my Lord?”

Sesshomaru stared at him hard, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

“Don’t invite my mother.”


	8. Chapter 8

The audience inside the Shinto shrine was subdued, small and solemn - it suited them. Sesshomaru and Rin entered the building at the same time, following straight down the invisible path laid out for them. The sound of flutes softened as the priest appeared. Friends, family, and political figureheads spectorated from two split lanes, seated opposite of one another so they could watch the new couple in profile. His mother’s presence was close, but hidden, disguised somewhere among the crowd. 

Rin appeared even smaller than usual, dwarfed under the perfectly folded fabric of her white kimono. The heavy weight was draped around her like a blanket of snow. She moved in a slow, carefully practiced waddle, restricted by her clothes as she was. Her honeyed eyes peeked out from under the headpiece, tightly wound topknot adorned with gold flowers. Sesshomaru felt a pull from the past. He was accustomed to seeing her with flowers in her hair.

Jaken eyed the priest from the crowd, hypervigilant, waiting for a slip up. When the priest was finished, they kneeled simultaneously, dropping gracefully to the floor. Rin’s posture was identical to his own, straight backed and strong. Sesshomaru held the tiny cup given to him carefully in his hands, waiting for Rin to be served. They drank the sake that was offered side by side, Rin’s face obscured by the tsunokakushi. 

Vows were exchanged quietly; not to each other, to the gods. 

His nostrils flared at the smell of salt; Rin was crying. Tears spilled over her cheeks one after the other, leaving soft imprints in the fabric around her neck. He brought one hand to tilt her head back and found that she was beaming too, a smile that sliced through Sesshomaru’s stoic, unreadable expression like a knife through butter.

A torrent of images flooded his brain in reverse chronological order. Rin was in all of them. Her death and burial first, the little plot of land he had visited until it lost all meaning. Next, there were the hazy faces of her family, her first scream in labour, and before that, a wedding he’d never attended, but no less observed. 

The day he’d left Rin with Kaede stood out among the rest. He remembered Rin’s brave face and the smell of the changing seasons. Some part of him had respected her refusal to cry. Their first meeting came to mind at last, that delicate encounter where a small human girl recklessly tried to help a demon.

A hundred gifts, a hundred excuses. By the end, Rin must have owned more kimonos then there were occasions. Only now, at five hundred years distance, could Sesshomaru concede to himself that perhaps...he’d been a bit short sighted. 

“Rin.”

The next time he looked to her, they were standing outside under a grove of sakura trees by the shrine. The tension had finally broken, and the spectators were left smiling in the aftermath, loosening their shoulders and deflating like balloons as they sighed with relief. For them, it seemed, the hardest part was over.

“Yes?”

She looked him in the eye with minimal effort. No fear. Comparatively, the union would be short, limited to a century or less. The thought triggered an unexpected, unfamiliar pang in the pit of Sesshomaru’s stomach. He lifted her up without meaning to, intention lost as his feelings unfroze in time. 

“This time, you will be at my side.”

“Sesshomaru-sama,” she said softly. “You remembered.”

“No.” The blood in his veins cooled. “I did not forget.”

The kiss was so short that if you blinked, you might have missed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was kind of a weird chapter, maybe a weird ending. Idk why I wax poetic so much from Sesshomaru's POV. I hope you guys like this fic overall...I'm not sure exactly what I wanted to accomplish. Inuyasha was a big part of my childhood and I don't think I was satisfied with how Sesshomaru left Rin at Kaede's village toward the end, even though it was probably the right thing to do. Some part of me had to reconcile with that, I guess. When did you get into Inuyasha? Let me know in the comments...


End file.
